Download The Yalta Conference, 1945

The Yalta Conference, 1945
The Yalta Conference took place in a Russian resort town in the Crimea from February 4–11,
1945, during World War Two. At Yalta, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime
Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin made important decisions
regarding the future progress of the war and the postwar world.
The Allied leaders came to Yalta knowing that an Allied victory in Europe was practically
inevitable but less convinced that the Pacific war was nearing an end. Recognizing that a victory
over Japan might require a protracted fight, the United States and Great Britain saw a major
strategic advantage to Soviet participation in the Pacific theater. At Yalta, Roosevelt and
Churchill discussed with Stalin the conditions under which the Soviet Union would enter the war
against Japan and all three agreed that, in exchange for potentially crucial Soviet participation in
the Pacific theater, the Soviets would be granted a sphere of influence in Manchuria following
Japan’s surrender. This included the southern portion of Sakhalin, a lease at Port Arthur (now
Lüshunkou), a share in the operation of the Manchurian railroads, and the Kurile Islands. This
agreement was the major concrete accomplishment of the Yalta Conference.
The Allied leaders also discussed the future of Germany, Eastern Europe and the United Nations.
Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin agreed not only to include France in the postwar governing of
Germany, but also that Germany should assume some, but not all, responsibility for reparations
following the war. The Americans and the British generally agreed that future governments of
the Eastern European nations bordering the Soviet Union should be “friendly” to the Soviet
regime while the Soviets pledged to allow free elections in all territories liberated from Nazi
Germany. Negotiators also released a declaration on Poland, providing for the inclusion of
Communists in the postwar national government. In discussions regarding the future of the
United Nations, all parties agreed to an American plan concerning voting procedures in the
Security Council, which had been expanded to five permanent members following the inclusion
of France. Each of these permanent members was to hold a veto on decisions before the Security
Council.
Initial reaction to the Yalta agreements was celebratory. Roosevelt and many other Americans
viewed it as proof that the spirit of U.S.-Soviet wartime cooperation would carry over into the
postwar period. This sentiment, however, was short lived. With the death of Franklin D.
Roosevelt on April 12, 1945, Harry S. Truman became the thirty-third president of the United
States. By the end of April, the new administration clashed with the Soviets over their influence
in Eastern Europe, and over the United Nations. Alarmed at the perceived lack of cooperation on
the part of the Soviets, many Americans began to criticize Roosevelt’s handling of the Yalta
negotiations. To this day, many of Roosevelt’s most vehement detractors accuse him of “handing
over” Eastern Europe and Northeast Asia to the Soviet Union at Yalta despite the fact that the
Soviets did make many substantial concessions.
Dewey Defeats Truman
On the morning after the 1948 presidential election, the Chicago Daily Tribune's headline read "DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN."
That's what the Republicans, the polls, the newspapers, the political writers, and even many Democrats had expected. But in the
largest political upset in U.S. history, Harry S. Truman surprised everyone when he, and not Thomas E. Dewey, won the 1948
election for President of the United States.
A little less than three months into his fourth term, President Franklin D. Roosevelt died. Two and a half hours after his death,
Harry S. Truman was sworn in as President of the United States.
Truman was thrust into the presidency during World War II. Though the war in Europe was clearly in the Allies' favor and nearing
an end, the war in the Pacific was continuing unmercifully. Truman was allowed no time for transition; it was his responsibility to
lead the U.S. to peace.
While completing Roosevelt's term, Truman was responsible for making the fateful decision to end the war with Japan by dropping
atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; creating the Truman Doctrine to give economic aid to Turkey and Greece as part of a
containment policy; helping the U.S. make a transition to a peace-time economy; blocking Stalin's attempts to conquer Europe, by
instigating the Berlin airlift; helping create the state of Israel for Holocaust survivors; and fighting for strong changes toward equal
rights for all citizens.
Yet the public and newspapers were against Truman. They called him a "little man" and often claimed he was inept. Perhaps the
main reason for the dislike for President Truman was because he was very much unlike their beloved Franklin D. Roosevelt. Thus,
when Truman was up for election in 1948, many people did not want to the "little man" to run.
Don't Run!
Political campaigns are largely ritualistic.... All the evidence we have accumulated since 1936 tends to indicate that the man in the
lead at the beginning of the campaign is the man who is the winner at the end of it.... The winner, it appears, clinches his victory
early in the race and before he has uttered a word of campaign oratory.1
--- Elmo Roper
For four terms, the Democrats had won the presidency with a "sure thing" - Franklin D. Roosevelt. They wanted another "sure
thing" for the presidential election of 1948, especially since the Republicans were going to choose Thomas E. Dewey as their
candidate. Dewey was relatively young, seemed well-liked, and had come very close to Roosevelt for the popular vote in the 1944
election.
And though incumbent presidents usually have a strong chance to be re-elected, many Democrats didn't think Truman could win
against Dewey. Though there were serious efforts to get famed General Dwight D. Eisenhower to run, Eisenhower refused. Though
many Democrats were not happy, Truman became the official Democratic candidate at the convention.
Give 'Em Hell Harry vs. The Polls
The polls, reporters, political writers - they all believed Dewey was going to win by a landslide. On September 9, 1948, Elmo Roper
was so confident of a Dewey win that he announced there would be no further Roper Polls on this election. Roper said, "My whole
inclination is to predict the election of Thomas E. Dewey by a heavy margin and devote my time and efforts to other things."2
The Election
By election day, the polls showed that Truman had managed to cut Dewey's lead, but all media sources still believed Dewey would
win by a landslide.
As the reports filtered in that night, Truman was ahead in the popular votes, but the newscasters still believed Truman didn't have a
chance.
By four the next morning, Truman's success seemed undeniable. At 10:14 a.m., Dewey conceded the election to Truman.
Since the election results were a complete shock to the media, the Chicago Daily Tribune got caught with the headline "DEWEY
DEFEATS TRUMAN." The photograph with Truman holding aloft the paper has become one of the most famous newspaper
photos of the century.
The GI Bill
The men who joined the military as teenagers came home after the war as adults.
Many had been places and seen things beyond what they ever could have imagined.
The nation wanted to thank them for their service. One way Congress decided to do
that became known as the G.I. Bill of Rights.
The official title was the "Servicemen's Readjustment Act" and President Franklin D.
Roosevelt signed it in 1944, even before the war ended.
The law gave the following benefits to U.S. soldiers coming home from World War
II:
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education and training opportunities
loan guarantees for a home, farm, or business
job-finding assistance
unemployment pay of $20 per week for up to 52 weeks if the veteran couldn't
find a job
priority for building materials for Veterans Administration Hospitals.
For most, the educational opportunities were the most important part of the law.
WWII veterans were entitled to one year of full-time training plus time equal to
their military service, up to 48 months. The Veterans Administration paid the
university, trade school, or employer up to $500 per year for tuition, books, fees and
other training costs. Veterans also received a small living allowance while they were
in school.
Thousands of veterans used the GI Bill to go to school. Veterans made up 49
percent of U.S. college enrollment in 1947. Nationally, 7.8 million veterans trained
at colleges, trade schools and in business and agriculture training programs. Later,
the law was changed, in 1952, to help veterans of the Korean War and, in 1966,
veterans of the Vietnam War. Although the program ended in 1989, there are
similar government programs to help today's military personnel pay for educational
expenses and buy a home.
Some of the veterans went to college and never returned to the farm. Others used
the bill to go to agricultural colleges and learn more about the new technologies in
farming.
Edward R. Murrow
Edward Murrow - This Reporter
“This . . . is London.” With those trademark words, crackling over the airwaves from a city in the midst of blitzkrieg,
Edward R. Murrow began a journalistic career that has had no equal. From the opening days of World War II through
his death in 1965, Murrow had an unparalleled influence on broadcast journalism. His voice was universally
recognized, and a generation of radio and television newsmen emulated his style. Murrow’s pioneering television
documentaries have more than once been credited with changing history, and to this day his name is synonymous with
courage and perseverance in the search for truth.
In 1937, Edward R. Murrow was sent by CBS to set up a network of correspondents to report on the gathering storm
in Europe. He assembled a group of young reporters whose names soon became household words in wartime America,
among whom were William Shirer, Charles Collingwood, Bill Shael, and Howard K. Smith. The group, which came to
be known collectively as “Murrow’s Boys,” reported the whole of World War II from the front lines with a courage
and loyalty inspired by Murrow’s own fearlessness. During the war Murrow flew in more than twenty bombing
missions over Berlin, and along with Bill Shadel was the first Allied correspondent to report the horrors from the Nazi
death camps.
Returning to America after the war, Murrow was surprised to find that his overseas reports had made him a star at
home. With the advent of television, Murrow was approached to host a weekly program. Along with his associate, Fred
Friendly, Murrow had been producing a popular radio show, Hear It Now. The television show was to be called See It
Now. Joe Wershba, a reporter who worked closely with Murrow, remembers, “Neither of them knew anything about
film making or television. All they knew was they wanted to do stories. Important stories.” Television was in its infancy
and Murrow and Friendly had to learn the process of filmmaking and the primitive television equipment on the job.
Murrow’s love of common America led him to seek out stories of ordinary people. He presented their stories in such a
way that they often became powerful commentaries on political or social issues. See It Now consistently broke new
ground in the burgeoning field of television journalism. In 1953, Murrow made the decision to investigate the case of
Milo Radulovich. Radulovich had been discharged from the Air Force on the grounds that his mother and sister were
communist sympathizers. The program outlined the elements of the case, casting doubt on the Air Force’s decision,
and within a short while, Milo Radulovich had been reinstated. This one edition of See It Now marked a change in the
face of American journalism and a new age in American politics.
Soon after the Milo Radulovich program aired, it was learned that Senator Joseph McCarthy was preparing an attack
on Murrow. As it happened, Murrow himself had been collecting material about McCarthy and his Senate
Investigating Committee for several years, and he began assembling the program. Broadcast on March 9, 1954, the
program, composed almost entirely of McCarthy’s own words and pictures, was a damning portrait of a fanatic.
McCarthy demanded a chance to respond, but his rebuttal, in which he referred to Murrow as “the leader of the jackal
pack,” only sealed his fate. The combination of the program’s timing and its persuasive power broke the Senator’s
hold over the nation. The entire fiasco, however, caused a rift with CBS, and they decided to discontinue See It Now.
By 1961 tensions had become irreparable between Murrow and CBS and he accepted an appointment from President
Kennedy as the head of the United States Information Agency. He was only to have the job for three years before
being diagnosed with lung cancer. In 1964 Murrow was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and in 1965 died
on his farm in New York. Perhaps more than any reporter before or since, Murrow captured the trust and belief of a
nation and returned that trust with honesty and courage. His belief in journalism as an active part of the political
process and a necessary tool within democracy has forever altered the politics and everyday life of the American
people.
Rosie the Riveter
American women entered the workforce in unprecedented numbers during World War II, as widespread male
enlistment left gaping holes in the industrial labor force. Between 1940 and 1945, the female percentage of the U.S.
workforce increased from 27 percent to nearly 37 percent, and by 1945 nearly one out of every four married women
worked outside the home. “Rosie the Riveter,” star of a government campaign aimed at recruiting female workers for
the munitions industry, became perhaps the most iconic image of working women during the war.
While women worked in a variety of positions previously closed to them during World War II, the aviation industry
saw the greatest increase in female workers. More than 310,000 women worked in the U.S. aircraft industry in 1943,
making up 65 percent of the industry’s total workforce (compared to just 1 percent in the pre-war years). The
munitions industry also heavily recruited women workers, as illustrated by the U.S. government’s “Rosie the Riveter”
propaganda campaign. Based in small part on a real-life munitions worker, but primarily a fictitious character, the
strong, bandanna-clad Rosie became one of the most successful recruitment tools in American history, and the most
iconic image of working women in the World War II era.
In movies, newspapers, posters, photographs and articles, the Rosie the Riveter campaign stressed the patriotic need
for women to enter the work force. On May 29, 1943, The Saturday Evening Post published a cover image by the artist
Norman Rockwell, portraying Rosie with a flag in the background and a copy of Adolf Hitler’s racist tract “Mein
Kampf” under her feet. Though Rockwell’s image may be the most commonly known version of Rosie the Riveter, her
prototype was actually created in 1942 and featured on a poster for the Westinghouse power company under the
headline “We Can Do It!” Early in 1943, a popular song debuted called “Rosie the Riveter,” written by Redd Evans
and John Jacob Loeb, and the name went down in history.
In addition to factory work and other home front jobs, some 350,000 women joined the Armed Services, serving at
home and abroad. At the urging of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and women’s groups, and impressed by the British
use of women in service, General George Marshall supported the idea of introducing a women’s service branch into
the Army. In May 1942, Congress instituted the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps, later upgraded to the Women’s
Army Corps, which had full military status. Its members, known as WACs, worked in more than 200 non-combatant
jobs stateside and in every theater of the war. By 1945, there were more than 100,000 WACs and 6,000 female
officers. In the Navy, members of Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES) held the same status
as naval reservists and provided support stateside. The Coast Guard and Marine Corps soon followed suit, though in
smaller numbers.
One of the lesser-known roles women played in the war effort was provided by the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots, or
WASPs. These women, each of whom had already obtained their pilot’s license prior to service, became the first
women to fly American military aircraft. They ferried planes from factories to bases, transporting cargo and
participating in simulation strafing and target missions, accumulating more than 60 million miles in flight distances
and freeing thousands of male U.S. pilots for active duty in World War II. More than 1,000 WASPs served, and 38 of
them lost their lives during the war. Considered civil service employees and without official military status, these fallen
WASPs were granted no military honors or benefits, and it wasn’t until 1977 that the WASPs received full military
status.